Sprinkler apparatuses for sprinkling a base plate of a vibration apparatus for soil compaction such as a vibrating plate for example are already known from the state of the art. Sprinkling during a compaction process is necessary in order to prevent the adherence of material to be compacted such as asphalt to a base plate for example. Water is mostly used as the sprinkling fluid. The use of other fluids and additives to hydrous solutions are known however.
Several known devices include a vibrating plate with a sprinkler apparatus and a removable water tank. Water flows from the tank to a lower section when a shut-off valve which is also arranged below is opened. No continuous adjustment of the water quantity is provided. The water flows into a nozzle tube, from which the water is sprayed directly onto the floor in front of the base plate of the vibration apparatus.
Another known sprinkler device principally allows a dosed setting of the water quantity which is used for sprinkling. For this purpose, a turning knob is provided at the top of the water tank. The water runs into a specially arranged groove via an opening in the bottom region of the water tank, which groove is attached to the base plate of the vibration apparatus. When more water flows into the groove than it can handle, the groove overflows and thus sprinkles in this way an upwardly bent area of the base plate of the vibration apparatus.
Although the latter sprinkler device represents a sprinkler apparatus which is more user friendly as a result of the turning knob arranged at the top of the water tank and it is principally possible to dose the sprinkling process by turning the turning knob, it is difficult with this turning knob to recognize the respective current setting at a glance even from far away. An inadvertent overtwisting of the turning knob also does not appear to be impossible. Although a user of the turning knob will feel the various latching positions when turning the knob, the sensing of these latching positions is often made more difficult by wearing working gloves and by the vibrations occurring during the operation of the vibration apparatus.